The FBI has interviewed former Pittsburgh police Chief Nathan Harper twice since a federal grand jury in March indicted him on five counts of failing to file federal tax returns and diverting public money,

We are currently undergoing updates to our site and are working to improve your experience on all devices that you use throughout your day. If you should find a page or a story that is not working correctly, please click here.

Thank you for your patience,

TribLIVE.com Team

Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl on Friday criticized his police chief's involvement in a private security business and called for an overhaul of department policies regarding employee moonlighting.

Ravenstahl said Chief Nate Harper didn't break the law, but should have known better than to partner with four department subordinates in creating Diverse Public Safety Consultants LLC.

“I'm not happy,” Ravenstahl said at the opening of a Peruvian restaurant Downtown. “When you have a police chief who is in business with his subordinates, it's not acceptable.”

Ravenstahl said he instructed city Solicitor Daniel Regan to seek the help of an outside expert to review and reform police policies and procedures. Although the city cannot prohibit employees from taking a second job, the mayor said, officers must focus on their primary duty to the city.

“It's time to reform that bureau,” Ravenstahl said. “Our focus will be on policies and procedures and specifically work outside of work.”

A federal investigation of Harper that became public in January centers on whether the chief was involved in awarding a contract to a shell company set up by one-time friend Art Bedway, 63, of Robinson, owner of Carnegie-based Victory Security.

Federal authorities in November accused Bedway of conspiring with former city employee Christine Kebr and unidentified others to set up Alpha Outfitters to win a contract to install computers in police vehicles.

Bedway, Kebr and Sgt. Gordon McDaniel, who oversees the police vehicle fleet, appeared before the grand jury last month.

City Council members and observers offered a mixed reaction to Ravenstahl's seeking an outside review.

“Perhaps we should have some policy to avoid the appearance of any kind of impropriety,” said Councilwoman Theresa Kail-Smith, who chairs the Public Safety Committee.

“Maybe we need an outside consultant to come in and be the mayor,” Dowd said.

Ravenstahl could not be reached later for comment. He is running for re-election this year.

Michael LaPorte, president of Fraternal Order of Police Fort Pitt Lodge No. 1, said he believes the city has a policy on ethics, but given this situation, “maybe it should be revisited.”

“I can understand why the mayor would take the opportunity to get an unbiased opinion,” said LaPorte, a sergeant. “My feelings on consultants: You don't have to ask somebody to look at your watch to tell you what time it is. We have a plethora of law enforcement experience here which enables us to make sound, practical, experienced decisions on policies.”

Elizabeth Pittinger, executive director of the Citizen Police Review Board, said the city's law department should be able to handle the problem without the help of an outside consultant.

“Oftentimes, you're in compliance with policy, but there are higher standards than law,” said R. Paul McCauley, professor emeritus and former chairman of Indiana University of Pennsylvania's criminology department. “There's an ethical standard. The mayor has an obligation to ensure his department heads are acting consistently within the law and ethics appropriate to that agency.”

Ravenstahl said Harper never informed him or the Law Department that he was setting up the consulting company. Ravenstahl said he discussed the situation with Harper on Thursday and the chief assured him he had done nothing wrong. The city has not disciplined Harper, and he remains on the job.

“We have a responsibility as the police chief and the mayor that we do things that are appropriate,” Ravenstahl said. “We have to be above reproach. In my mind, I would hope that he would be smarter than that.”

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. on Thursday said the chief did nothing illegal because the company appeared dormant. The business would not be eligible for a private detective's license because those involved are active police officers.

On Friday, Zappala's spokesman Mike Manko said portions of the company's website, which was taken down, appeared to advertise services “that would violate the private detectives act, specifically those sections involving the training and placing of personnel.

Manko said the District Attorney's Office would send a cease-and-desist letter to the individuals who formed the company “advising them of the potential violations and the proper licensing procedure.”

Staff writer Bobby Kerlik contributed to this report. Bob Bauder and Margaret Harding are staff writers for Trib Total Media.

You are solely responsible for your comments and by using TribLive.com you agree to our
Terms of Service.

We moderate comments. Our goal is to provide substantive commentary for a general readership. By screening submissions, we provide a space where readers can share intelligent and informed commentary that enhances the quality of our news and information.

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderating decisions are subjective. We will make them as carefully and consistently as we can. Because of the volume of reader comments, we cannot review individual moderation decisions with readers.

We value thoughtful comments representing a range of views that make their point quickly and politely. We make an effort to protect discussions from repeated comments either by the same reader or different readers

We follow the same standards for taste as the daily newspaper. A few things we won't tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Don't include URLs to Web sites.

We do not edit comments. They are either approved or deleted. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. In this case, we may fix spelling and punctuation.

We welcome strong opinions and criticism of our work, but we don't want comments to become bogged down with discussions of our policies and we will moderate accordingly.

We appreciate it when readers and people quoted in articles or blog posts point out errors of fact or emphasis and will investigate all assertions. But these suggestions should be sent
via e-mail. To avoid distracting other readers, we won't publish comments that suggest a correction. Instead, corrections will be made in a blog post or in an article.